at the
fellow, the more clearly I see what wonders a comfortable income can
work here below. Had he ever such rosy cheeks?--such a rounded chin?
Don't these sweetly-smiling lips say, "The roast-beef was superior, and
the burgundy first quality"?'

"Severin laughed.

"'Observe,' said Marzell, taking Alexander by the arms and turning him
round, 'what superfine cloth his coat's made of! Look at the dazzling
whiteness of his linen!--that splendid gold chain with about seven
hundred seals! Tell us, lad, how you have managed to turn out such a
terrific swell? It's so unlike what you used to be. One might almost
have said of you, quoting Sir John Falstaff, that you might be wrapped
in an eel-skin; and now you're getting almost pudgy. What does it all
mean?'

"'Well,' said Alexander, blushing a little, 'have you got anything more
to say about me? You know I took my retirement a year ago, and am
leading a happy, comfortable life?'

"'The fact is,' said Severin, who had not been listening much to what
Marzell was saying, but had been standing lost in thought, 'we parted
in a strange sort of fashion; not at all as old friends should.'

"'You, in particular,' said Alexander, 'for you went off without saying
a word to either of us.'

"'Ah!' said Severin, 'I was in the height of a phase of most
extraordinary folly just then, and so were you, and Marzell, too,
for----'

"He suddenly stopped, and the three looked at one another with
sparkling eyes, like people all struck at once by the same idea, like
an electric shock. While Severin had been speaking, they had been going
along arm-in-arm, and they now found they were at the very table where
the beautiful creature who had turned all their heads two years before
had been sitting that day. What their eyes all said was, 'There! there
is the place where she was sitting!' There was a strong feeling as if
she were coming back again. Marzell was beginning to move out the
chairs. However, they went on, and Alexander had a table set out on the
spot where they themselves had been sitting that eventful Whit Monday.
The coffee had come; but neither of them had spoken a word, and
Alexander seemed the most embarrassed of the three. The waiter stood
waiting for his money. He looked in amazement from one of these
speechless customers to another; he rubbed his hands; he coughed; at
last he said, in a feebly voice:

"'Shall I bring some rum, gentlemen?'

"On which they looked in each other